Spatio-Temporal Analysis of the Operator-Centered Manual Operational System in Surface Water Distribution under Water Supply Shortage: A Case Study of the NekooAbad Irrigation District, Isfahan

The research conducted was aimed at developing a comprehensive method to evaluate the technical performance of an operator-centered Operation. The study was conducted under different water supply shortage conditions. The NekooAbad irrigation District was selected for simulation purposes using the Integral-Delay model to simulate flow distribution in the canals. The boundary conditions were based on historical statistics of surface water supply at the source. Seven scenarios were created, ranging from normal to severe water shortage. The technical assessment was based on two aspects: temporal analysis of the daily average water distribution adequacy in 13 main and 149 secondary off-takes. The second aspect included spatial analysis of the distribution of the mentioned index throughout the district. The study classified water distribution adequacy under each scenario. The results showed a pattern of reduced water distribution adequacy from the source to the downstream in all 13 secondary and the main canal. The daily average of the surface water distribution adequacy index ranged from over 10% in the normal scenario to less than 40% in the water scarcity scenarios. The percentage changes ranged from -95% to 64%, 90% to 56%, 89% to 54%, 89% to 50%, 86% to 49%, 86% to 46%, and 33% to 77%. The study also revealed a clear pattern of the operational system's inefficiency in the adequate distribution of surface water under water scarcity scenarios. Furthermore, it identified the vulnerable areas of the district through spatial regionalization maps of water distribution adequacy.